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Superbook Brings the Bible to Life

By Ken Hulme with Gordon RobertsonThe 700 Club

CBN.com
 It’s a new look for an old classic. This is CBN’s Superbook.

CBN has designed this fresh new look to bring Superbook to a new generation. The idea to produce an animated Bible for children began in 1981. CBN created Superbook as part of a massive campaign to reach the nation of Japan.

When the original series aired in primetime, more than four million people watched every week. Then in 1990, as communism was falling, the soviet government asked CBN to air Superbook across the entire soviet network. The results were astounding. CBN received more than six million letters from children and their parents.

For nearly three decades, children in more than 100 countries have enjoyed Superbook. It’s been translated into 43 languages and viewed by an estimated half billion people. Now it’s time to update the look of Superbook to reach a whole new generation.

“As we looked at the Superbook, the main thing we wanted to do was change the style of animation,” says Gordon Robertson, Chief Executive Officer of CBN and co-host of The 700 Club. “We can now create a third dimension by adding light, shadows and textures – just like kids see in other animated movies.

In the pilot episode of Superbook, the 3-D story of David and Goliath literally jumps off the screen.

Emmy award winner Sean Roche oversees the writing of the new version. He’s worked with major studios like Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera and Disney. He says, “None of us could do this alone. It’s a monumental undertaking. We’re just excited to be this little piece that we bring to it.”

Once a script is finalized, sketches are turned into 3-D computer characters. Then frame-by-frame the characters are combined with backgrounds.

As funds become available, CBN will produce the first 13 episodes, bringing the Bible to life.